


Descent Into Darkness

by Squibbles94



Category: Original Work
Genre: Archaeology, Creepy, Gen, One Shot, This shouldn't be this long, finding things that shouldn't be found
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2020-09-30 10:18:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20445518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squibbles94/pseuds/Squibbles94
Summary: Writing Prompt:You are an archaeologist working on a dig, when you find a thick pane of glass. You dust the dirt away, and see the inside of a massive bio-dome, hidden for too long. Only one organism is inside, and it was meant to be forgotten.





	Descent Into Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> Hello Lovelies!
> 
> So here is a thing I wrote based on a prompt that I gave my students. I have never actually posted original works before, so we will see how this goes. If you see errors, please let me know! 
> 
> Enjoy!

The sun beat down on the back of my neck as the hours drug. I hadn’t meant to spend so much time out here in the desert, but I knew there was something out here. Something waiting to be discovered. It was almost as if there was an unseen force tugging at my mind, telling me to come here. No matter what I tried to do, I always ended up back here. So, there I sat under a tarp with the vain hope of it providing a smidgin of shade and a small shovel in my hand. All signs pointed to this area being where we would find more fossils. The surrounding area was riddled with them, though they were not what I was looking for.

Everything told me that it was all in my mind. From the dreams that made my heart twist to the sudden ability to draw perfectly. But it was just the one image that seemed to flow from my pen. I tried other images, and they never came as clear as the image of a man with dark locks and deep burgundy eyes. It was frightening to say the least, that this was the only thing that ran through my mind while surrounded by the nothingness of the desert.

“Have you found anything yet?” Cameron asked, his deep voice booming above me.  
  
I shook my head slightly at his impatience. “No. There’s still a long way to go, I think.”

He contemplated this for a minute before dropping into the hole, not even glancing at the ladder that was poised to make the descent easier. “I swear, if you say that one more time, I think I’m gonna punch something,” he said as he handed over a water bottle.

“I haven’t said it that much. Also, down boy. Your testosterone is showing,” I replied snatching the bottle from his hand and drinking greedily.

Cameron shook his head, making his hair fall into his eyes. It needed to be cut again, or tied back. “I just think we’ve been out here too long because of some dream you had. You know the grant money is about to run out right?”

I nodded in his direction as I kneeled down to continued digging. This was a conversation we had many times. There was no need to hash this out again. We both knew that the money was about to run out because we hadn’t delivered on our promises. The promise of a fossil so rare, that there would be a bidding war among the museums. We supplied everything we thought we needed to secure the funds for just enough time for us to find something, but the investors started to recognise that we were not the best investment. They started pulling funding last month and set a date where all funding would be revoked. The worst thing was, per the contract, if we didn’t find anything we would owe them all their money back. That was $20,000 we didn’t have.

We worked in relative silence, through the sweltering heat and rough sand. As I plunged the shovel into the ground there was resistance and a slight ‘thud’. I glanced at Cameron, seeing the excitement behind his eyes. I dropped the shovel just in case we stumbled upon the object of my recent obsession. It didn’t need to be damaged because I was impatient.   
I cleared the sand away with my hands to reveal what looked like a smooth surface. It was cold against my fingers, even though the sand around it was burning. I snatched my hands away as the cold seemed to seep into my fingers.

“Cameron,” I breathed.

“I know,” he whispered. “What is it?”

“I … I don’t know. It looks like … glass, but it’s cold. Like really cold.”

I reached back toward the glass and brushed away more sand. How big was this thing? Maybe it was a building, but that didn’t make sense. It was under the sand. Vaguely I remembered an episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender where an entire library sunk below the desert sand but I also remembered the episode didn’t end well.

“Give me your flashlight,” I asked. “I want to see if we can see what’s inside.”

Cameron handed me the flashlight and I shined it into the glass. The light was immediately swallowed by the darkness, touching nothing.

“Go get the rope,” I ordered. There was no way I was leaving without figuring out how deep this was.

“Here,” Cameron called as he shoved the rope into your hands. “I also brought this.” He held up a pickaxe that was mainly for busting up stubborn rocks.

“I could kiss you right now,” I shrieked as I moved to the side.

Cameron shrugged with a wide smile on his face. He moved closer to the glass and let the pickaxe fly into the surface. There was a crack and small shards of the black glass flew across my face. I faintly felt a warm sensation bloom across my cheek as blood seeped from the jagged cut. I wiped my cheek furiously as Cameron took another hit at the glassy surface.

There was a whooshing sound as if air was being sucked through the small hole that now graced the surface of the glass. I looked at Cameron with wide eyes. The only reason it would do that was if it was sealed on all sides. It took a few more swings before there was a hole big enough for me to be able to squeeze through.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Cameron asked as I tied the rope around me.

“Getting ready to go down there. Just lower me enough to see how deep it goes. I’ll take the camera so I can record everything.”

“I’m not letting you go down there alone. No. No way.” Cameron moved to stand in front of me, blocking the hole from my path.

“Seriously?” I seethed. “And how am I going to pull you back up? Huh?”

Cameron seemed to think about it and his face slowly broke into a scowl. “You know what? Fine. If you die, I’m gonna kill you.”

“Do what you need to do,” I snapped as I stepped toward the opening. I knelt down and let my legs drop into the abyss. It was cold against my legs, even through the cloth that covered my legs. “Hey, Cameron?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t drop me,” I ordered, though there was a slight tremble to my voice that made his face soften immediately.

“Never.”

I took a deep breath and nodded my head, giving him the go-ahead. He lowered me down slowly and I shined the light attached to the camera in all directions. It still disappeared into the darkness leaving me no clue as to what I was actually getting myself into.

“You okay down there?” Cameron yelled.

“Yeah! Still nothing!” I yelled back.

I was being lowered even farther into the darkness when my light caught something below me. It looked like the bottom of the cavern, but it looked as if it were moving. It was slightly shimmering and I considered calling to Cameron to pull me back up but I knew this was what we were looking for all this time.

When my feet hit the bottom, I thought I would feel a hard surface but I watched as my feet disappeared through the surface. It felt like my legs were being held against ice cubes and I tried to yank my legs away from the burning cold. They didn’t move.

“Cameron?” I called. “Cameron?! I’m stuck!”

I looked up wildly trying to see Cameron at the top of the rope but all I could see was the darkness that permeated around me. I started to gasp, the air around me getting thicker. Almost as if someone was sitting on my chest.

“Cameron?!” I screamed. “Help!”  
I looked down at my feet again, which were still in the strange sludge that was supposed to be the ground. I clung to the rope that was holding me out of the void praying desperately for Cameron to freak out enough to pull me up.

“Okay. Okay. You are not going crazy. This is okay. This is fine,” I whispered into the darkness.

There was a tug on the rope above me. I almost sighed in relief until the rope suddenly went slack and I felt myself falling into the ground. I desperately tried to cling to anything that would keep me from falling into the unknown abyss below. There was nothing to hold onto and the rope was essentially useless.

I screamed.

My body hit the ground with a loud thud. I felt the pain radiate through my side as I sat up. Looking around, I saw a vast open space that seemed to be in darkness. There were trees all around. A forest. I was in a forest. I stood to my feet and glanced around, trying to find anything that looked familiar.

How had this survived down here? There was no sun, there shouldn’t be trees.

A rustling noise caught my attention. I spun around, looking wildly at the trees. I help my camera up because it was the only thing I had to defend myself. I should have brought the stupid pickaxe.

“I see you finally made it,” a voice called from the trees.

“Hello? Who’s there?” I asked, camera shaking in my hand.

A tall figure stepped out of the shadows wearing a sickly grin. He was clad in a dark suit that protruded around his muscular frame. His black hair was slicked back and his burgundy eyes shined in the darkness.

“I’ve been calling for you.”


End file.
